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Advance Wars – portable gaming perfected

Advance Wars – will there ever be another one?

GameCentral readers discuss the video game sequels theyve given up hope of ever happening, from Soul Reaver 3 to Bloodborne 2.

The subject for this weeks Hot Topic was suggested by reader Franky, who asked whats the one piece of gaming news you never expect to hear? With Gamescom coming up next week whats the one sequel, reboot, or hardware annoucement youre confident wont be made?

We had plenty of different answers, from throughout gaming history, but Valve and Konami got the greatest number of mentions, with many also being pessimistic about the chances of a new Advance Wars.

An end to all Wars

The game announcement I never expect to hear is a new Advance Wars. Which is a huge shame as I have never really gotten on with Fire Emblem, which is all Intelligent Systems seem to make now.
The units in the early Advance Wars games were so well balanced that I really enjoyed the chess-like tactics.

Every other tactics game I have played has always felt less tactical due to increased complexity or randomness in dice rolls. With Advance Wars I lost a unit because I placed it in the wrong place, not because they missed a 96% chance to hit and were then mind-controlled into murdering a team mate before committing suicide.

The most surprising announcement was Shenmue III a few years ago. I enjoyed the first game on the Dreamcast but felt the series was already long past its sell by date when I came to play the sequel a few years later on Xbox. I do not have much hope for the third entry.
PazJohnMitch

Portable hopes

Im going to go with hardware and say that I dont think we will see another dedicated Sony handheld console, which I think is a great shame. I think we will see Sony games on portable hardware again, but I think this will either be through a hybrid console or through the games being streamed onto tablets and phones.

The PSP and PS Vita are two of my favourite consoles, I put many more hours into them then I did my DS or 3DS as the Vita was basically my indie machine until the Switch came along. I also enjoyed plugging away at getting Trophies in my favourite games, it was perfect for just having a quick go at attempting a particularly difficult Trophy in between ad breaks on TV.

Sadly I dont think we will see another dedicated Sony handheld as even though they have sold reasonably well (especially the PSP) in Japan, I get the feeling that neither hit the level of success that Sony was hoping for and that they are expensive for Sony to produce. The success of the Switch gives me hope for a hybrid which is a good consolation though.
Angry_Kurt (Twitter)

Those with faith will be spared

Bloodborne has been mentioned a bit in the Inbox lately and I was very glad to see it being described as the game of the generation, which I absolutely believe it is. But Ive given up hoping for a sequel now, not on the PlayStation 4 anyway. Maybe theyll make one for the next gen but I think probably they wont.

The thing is though Im actually okay with that now. Maybe Ive just gone through all the stages of grief but now I look at the game it is basically perfect. Perfect in everyway including the fact that it had a proper ending(s) and no obvious questions left unanswered (not the sort that were meant to be answered anyway).

Id much rather that Miyazaki went on to make something else new, which seems to be exactly what hes doing with the new ninja game. Good for him I say, even though its sad to think nobody will do Lovecraft as well as him.
Samta

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Alien thoughts

I can think of quite a few games that fit this answer: a Paper Mario game thats actually good again, a proper new Silent Hill, and GC favourite Power Stone 3 (or for that matter a Han Solo simulator, although I suspect thats less likely than ever now).

Personally though I am most upset about, and convinced there never will be, a follow-up to Alien Isolation. The original obviously didnt sell anywhere near enough and I dont even know if Sega owns the Aliens licence anymore, but that game was so close to being an all-time classic.

The atmosphere was 11/10 an I have never been so scared playing a game ever, but the story was a complete non-entity and the whole thing just went on forever and ended on cliffhanger that resolved nothing. Maybe its been finished in some comic or something but I want a proper game that follows things up and improves on the originals fault. But Im resigned to the fact that thats never going to happen.
Jude
PS: Also, kudos to anyone that says a Western release for Mother 3. And if no one does, I will!

A new hope

This is a good question and Im a bit torn on my answer. The first thing that comes to mind is Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic III, but a part of me still holds out a sliver of hope that BioWare are secretly working on it and that it could happen. Or even if its not a direct sequel then something in that same basic era and style.

But EA and Disney have made such a mess of Star Wars and its games in the last couple of years that Im not sure what theyre doing any more. Id be surprised if we saw another Battlefront but would they go from that to a complex, single-player role-playing game? Considering the way they treated Visceral Id guess not.

My other nomination would be another Jet Set Radio. Id imagine Sega are going to feature quite prominently in this Hot Topic and to be honest Ive given up hope on just about anything other than another (bad) Sonic game.
Smiler

No way back

Im tempted to just say Sega and leave it at that. Nuff said. They seem to do all right nowadays with the PC strategy games but my hope that the profits from that could be used to make more arcade style games has never happened, an I think its pretty obvious it never will now. Especially since Sonic Mania doesnt seem to have bene particularly popular despite being a 100 times better than any other Sonic game for decades.

For the record though Id love to see Golden Axe, Streets Of Rage, Shinobi, and Panzer Dragoon come back the most. As well as a new Fighters Megamix or equivalent to maybe introduce them again to a modern audience. But its not going to happen, I see that now. I dont know why the company even calls itself Sega anymore really because when I think Sega I do not think dusty old strategy games.
Ratched

Obvious answer

Half-Life 3. Valve really have let the world down.
Andy

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All good things

Im not sure it qualifies as the least likely announcement ever, but one thing I would be surprised to see announced is a sequel to Vanquish. I loved the original to bits, my only complaints were that there wasnt enough variety in the boss battles and the whole thing was too bloody short! Otherwise I thought it was a blistering success and definitely one of my favourite titles of the last generation.

A full blown sequel, twice the size, with more creative landmark adversaries, current gen graphical glitz, extra parody level, super gruff, dialogue and even more of that awesome, pumping, futuristic techno soundtrack would really make my day. I suspect Shenmue IV is more likely at this stage, but hey, I can dream.

Another one Id like to see would have to be a Resident Evil 2 style Dino Crisis remake. Ive never actually played it, but the love it gets from its fans makes me wish I had. And as someone who really enjoyed the GameCube Resident Evil remake, and cant wait to get stuck into the upcoming reworked sequel, Id really like the chance to see a modern take on this lost gem for myself.

Basically, I think what Im saying here is I want more mech suits, more robots, and some dinosaurs. Inbox magic, make it so!
yourhomeisatrisk (PSN ID)
PS: The news that there might be a possibility of a TimeSplitters 4 (or maybe just some kind of reissue/compilation of the first three) makes me smile. Someone lent me the second one way back during a low point in my 20s and the shear lunacy of some of the challenge level premises really cheered my soul. I cant recall a game or series from anyone since that captures anything like that same relentless level of quality daftness. All digits crossed for more!
Currently playing: Uncharted 4

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